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Best Ghost Stories
Interest in supernatural phenomena was high during Charles Dickens lifetime. His natural inclination towards drama and the macabre lead him into the telling of ghost tales. Twelve ghosts stories are presented here, and the full range of Dickens' gothic talents can be seen.
273 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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133 people want to read
About the author
Charles Dickens
12.7k books31.4k followersCharles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.
Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.
Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.
On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.
(from Wikipedia)
Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.
Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.
On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 13, 2017
There are two kinds of ghost story that are considered acceptable to the average reader. The first and most common of these is the hair-raising chiller. The second is the comedy ghost story, often of a whimsical nature.
Charles Dickens wrote a larger number of ghost stories than many people imagine, and these stories contain elements of comedy and creepiness, often mingled together, but they also go further than this, and a number of them could be seen as moral tales.
The Wordsworth selection of Best Ghost Stories contains 12 such yarns, although we might more accurately call it 11, since ‘A Madman’s Manuscript’ (a story found in The Pickwick Papers) does not contain any ghosts. It is an effectively sinister story told from the point of view of a lunatic, and quite Dostoevskian in style and content.
Some of the stories have been criminally overlooked because Dickens slotted them into his novels where they served as a distraction from the events of the main story. This is a pity, as these early tales are good fun to read. While there are some ghoulish moments, the tone is mostly comical here.
In ‘The Queer Chair’ (which is also found in The Pickwick Papers), the ghost of an old chair helps a man to overcome his rival and marry the landlady to the pub. The ghost gives them this encouragement because the chair does not wish to be sold off, and realises that this inveterate boozer will be perfectly happy to live in a tavern.
‘The Ghosts of the Mail’ (a story told in Nicholas Nickelby) has the potential to be a serious ghost story. The narrator tells the tale of his uncle who formed part of an other-worldly escapade where he rescues a woman from male oppressors, and remains faithful to her, even after the ghosts fade away. However the tone of the story is larky, and we can only read the story as a fun one.
The early tale that most resembles later Dickens ghost stories is ‘The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton’ (another short story first found in The Pickwick Papers). The tone is again humorous, but there is a creepy quality to it, and it is the first of Dickens’ moral ghost stories. It tells the tale of a mean-minded sexton who is brought to repentance after an encounter with goblins who show him the error of his ways.
The story provides the prototype for A Christmas Carol, Dickens’ best-loved Christmas work, and the most famous ghost story in this volume. A Christmas Carol deserves a more detailed review from me, and I will save that for another time. In ‘The Goblins…’ we also have a miserable man who is committed to his work, and who hates people. He is, if anything, even less appealing than Scrooge, at one point striking a child for being too happy.
The scenes where he is confronted with his wicked past and repents are not as convincing as in the more famous story of Scrooge. It is hard to imagine that goblins would have any interest in saving the sexton’s soul. However viewed away from its more famous successor, it is a hugely entertaining story.
The same cannot be said of ‘The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain’, one of the longest stories here, and probably the weakest. This story follows the same template as the last two I mentioned. This time it follows a man who does not wish to deal with his past misery and seeks oblivion from it.
A ghostly presence grants him this wish, but throws in a darker twist, which is that everyone that the man meets will also lose all feelings for one another. Watching the people around him turn against each other, the sufferer is horrified, asks to be restored his sad memories.
This story is a little dull in the telling, and it does not entirely add up. Redlaw is no Scrooge and his wish to be numbed of feelings is at least understandable, making the ghost’s anti-Midas curse seem unreasonable and unfair.
Rather better is ‘The Ghost in the Bride’s Chamber’. Two men are staying in an old house that is haunted by six ghosts which for some peculiar reason are all the same man. The man is a murderer who tormented his bride until she died, and murdered her sweetheart. His crime was eventually brought to light, and he was hanged for it.
As a punishment he is condemned to walk the house until he can tell his story to two men. However as an added curse he can only ever find one man who is awake to hear his story, the other falling into an induced sleep when he arrives, meaning that he is doomed to walk forever. This is a very different moral story which abandons the template of the other stories I mentioned, and delves into more macabre depths.
The same is true of ‘The Trial for Murder’ where the foreman of a jury is haunted by the victim of the accused man who casts a pall on the proceedings and leads the jurors on to convicting the man. Justice is thus summarily dealt from beyond the grave in this dark story.
While Dickens had some belief in the supernatural, this is not always evident in the ghost stories where there is often an ambiguity that allows for another interpretation. Many of the victims of ghost visitations had fallen asleep just before, and we may suspect they only dreamt the events. We are often in doubt whether nerves or illness play a role in stirring morbid imaginings of the haunted.
This is true in the best of the shorter ghost stories, ‘The Signalman’. The titular character reports seeing a mysterious figure just before news came across of two unhappy incidents on a train, and the figure is now hinting at a third disaster. When the narrator goes to visit the signalman later, he learns that this omen related to the signalman’s own death, and the unfortunate man has been killed by a train.
This seems supernatural enough, but there is a curious element in that the words of the spectre echo those of the train driver who called out to warn the signalman. Was the spectre anticipating the driver’s words, or did the driver’s unfortunate choice of words echo the fantasy of the signalman’s disturbed mind, and bring about the accident?
If most of the stories are ambiguous, this is not true of the two stories in ‘The Haunted House’. These offer a firmly natural explanation for the supposedly ghostly goings-on. The first story suggests that all the disturbances are the result of the servants being silly and making the noises that frighten everyone. In the second story, the hero is haunted not by ghosts of the past, but by his own memories emerging clearly in his mind.
This is a good collection of Dickens stories. There are a few weaker tales, but the quality of most of the book is surprisingly high, and it is well worth exploring this lesser-known side of Dickens’ work.
Charles Dickens wrote a larger number of ghost stories than many people imagine, and these stories contain elements of comedy and creepiness, often mingled together, but they also go further than this, and a number of them could be seen as moral tales.
The Wordsworth selection of Best Ghost Stories contains 12 such yarns, although we might more accurately call it 11, since ‘A Madman’s Manuscript’ (a story found in The Pickwick Papers) does not contain any ghosts. It is an effectively sinister story told from the point of view of a lunatic, and quite Dostoevskian in style and content.
Some of the stories have been criminally overlooked because Dickens slotted them into his novels where they served as a distraction from the events of the main story. This is a pity, as these early tales are good fun to read. While there are some ghoulish moments, the tone is mostly comical here.
In ‘The Queer Chair’ (which is also found in The Pickwick Papers), the ghost of an old chair helps a man to overcome his rival and marry the landlady to the pub. The ghost gives them this encouragement because the chair does not wish to be sold off, and realises that this inveterate boozer will be perfectly happy to live in a tavern.
‘The Ghosts of the Mail’ (a story told in Nicholas Nickelby) has the potential to be a serious ghost story. The narrator tells the tale of his uncle who formed part of an other-worldly escapade where he rescues a woman from male oppressors, and remains faithful to her, even after the ghosts fade away. However the tone of the story is larky, and we can only read the story as a fun one.
The early tale that most resembles later Dickens ghost stories is ‘The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton’ (another short story first found in The Pickwick Papers). The tone is again humorous, but there is a creepy quality to it, and it is the first of Dickens’ moral ghost stories. It tells the tale of a mean-minded sexton who is brought to repentance after an encounter with goblins who show him the error of his ways.
The story provides the prototype for A Christmas Carol, Dickens’ best-loved Christmas work, and the most famous ghost story in this volume. A Christmas Carol deserves a more detailed review from me, and I will save that for another time. In ‘The Goblins…’ we also have a miserable man who is committed to his work, and who hates people. He is, if anything, even less appealing than Scrooge, at one point striking a child for being too happy.
The scenes where he is confronted with his wicked past and repents are not as convincing as in the more famous story of Scrooge. It is hard to imagine that goblins would have any interest in saving the sexton’s soul. However viewed away from its more famous successor, it is a hugely entertaining story.
The same cannot be said of ‘The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain’, one of the longest stories here, and probably the weakest. This story follows the same template as the last two I mentioned. This time it follows a man who does not wish to deal with his past misery and seeks oblivion from it.
A ghostly presence grants him this wish, but throws in a darker twist, which is that everyone that the man meets will also lose all feelings for one another. Watching the people around him turn against each other, the sufferer is horrified, asks to be restored his sad memories.
This story is a little dull in the telling, and it does not entirely add up. Redlaw is no Scrooge and his wish to be numbed of feelings is at least understandable, making the ghost’s anti-Midas curse seem unreasonable and unfair.
Rather better is ‘The Ghost in the Bride’s Chamber’. Two men are staying in an old house that is haunted by six ghosts which for some peculiar reason are all the same man. The man is a murderer who tormented his bride until she died, and murdered her sweetheart. His crime was eventually brought to light, and he was hanged for it.
As a punishment he is condemned to walk the house until he can tell his story to two men. However as an added curse he can only ever find one man who is awake to hear his story, the other falling into an induced sleep when he arrives, meaning that he is doomed to walk forever. This is a very different moral story which abandons the template of the other stories I mentioned, and delves into more macabre depths.
The same is true of ‘The Trial for Murder’ where the foreman of a jury is haunted by the victim of the accused man who casts a pall on the proceedings and leads the jurors on to convicting the man. Justice is thus summarily dealt from beyond the grave in this dark story.
While Dickens had some belief in the supernatural, this is not always evident in the ghost stories where there is often an ambiguity that allows for another interpretation. Many of the victims of ghost visitations had fallen asleep just before, and we may suspect they only dreamt the events. We are often in doubt whether nerves or illness play a role in stirring morbid imaginings of the haunted.
This is true in the best of the shorter ghost stories, ‘The Signalman’. The titular character reports seeing a mysterious figure just before news came across of two unhappy incidents on a train, and the figure is now hinting at a third disaster. When the narrator goes to visit the signalman later, he learns that this omen related to the signalman’s own death, and the unfortunate man has been killed by a train.
This seems supernatural enough, but there is a curious element in that the words of the spectre echo those of the train driver who called out to warn the signalman. Was the spectre anticipating the driver’s words, or did the driver’s unfortunate choice of words echo the fantasy of the signalman’s disturbed mind, and bring about the accident?
If most of the stories are ambiguous, this is not true of the two stories in ‘The Haunted House’. These offer a firmly natural explanation for the supposedly ghostly goings-on. The first story suggests that all the disturbances are the result of the servants being silly and making the noises that frighten everyone. In the second story, the hero is haunted not by ghosts of the past, but by his own memories emerging clearly in his mind.
This is a good collection of Dickens stories. There are a few weaker tales, but the quality of most of the book is surprisingly high, and it is well worth exploring this lesser-known side of Dickens’ work.
April 30, 2021
Osa lugusid nagu omasid täiega head potensiaali ja siis lõppesid nad nii, et ei mingit otsest moraali, õpetust või lahendustki või mõtet omamata. Sellised kus põhirõhk on nagu mingil vaimul, hirmutusel aga otseselt nagu mingit sügavamat sisu tihti ei olegi. Mõned lood välja arvatud. Et kohati segane ja minu maitsele äärmiselt igav kahjuks seeläbi.
Ma ise jõudsin järeldusele, et ilmselt need lood ongi sellised mida ei ole mõtet lugeda - niimoodi nad ei pääse mõjule. Neid võiks kuulata kui neid justnimelt jutustatakse, kas lõkke ääres või kamina ees või lihtsalt videvikus.
Et siis kes õudust ei armasta aga mingit väikest kõhedust tahaks proovida - ei ole halb, lihtsalt peab arvestama, et need on ikka niipalju vanaaegsed, et tänapäeval sama efekti ehk ei saavuta, mis omal ajal.
Ma ise jõudsin järeldusele, et ilmselt need lood ongi sellised mida ei ole mõtet lugeda - niimoodi nad ei pääse mõjule. Neid võiks kuulata kui neid justnimelt jutustatakse, kas lõkke ääres või kamina ees või lihtsalt videvikus.
Et siis kes õudust ei armasta aga mingit väikest kõhedust tahaks proovida - ei ole halb, lihtsalt peab arvestama, et need on ikka niipalju vanaaegsed, et tänapäeval sama efekti ehk ei saavuta, mis omal ajal.
September 21, 2015
Best Ghost Stories by Charles Dickens is a mixed collection of stories as some are very short, some are very long, and some are extracts from his other works. The quality varies – the original shorter version of ‘A Christmas Carol’ is quite brilliant, even though it is probably impossible to judge it on its own merits without preconceptions. The short tales extracted from ‘The Pickwick Papers’ and ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ also deserve special mention. However, the longest tale, ‘The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain’ is hard work from start to finish and acts like a drag anchor on the whole collection in my opinion, although it has its moments of pure Dickens magic. Mostly enjoyable.
November 28, 2023
An enjoyable collection of ghost stories by Charles Dickens. The stories included in this collection are:
The Lawyer and the Ghost
The Ghosts of the Mail (aka, The Bagman's Uncle)
Baron Koeldwethout's Apparition
Christmas Ghosts (from "A Christmas Tree")
The Story of the Goblins who Stole a Sexton
A Christmas Carol
A Madman's Manuscript
The Mother's Eyes
The Trial for Murder
The Hanged Man's Bride
To Be Read at Dusk
Captain Murder & The Devil's Bargain
The Signal-Man
The Lawyer and the Ghost
The Ghosts of the Mail (aka, The Bagman's Uncle)
Baron Koeldwethout's Apparition
Christmas Ghosts (from "A Christmas Tree")
The Story of the Goblins who Stole a Sexton
A Christmas Carol
A Madman's Manuscript
The Mother's Eyes
The Trial for Murder
The Hanged Man's Bride
To Be Read at Dusk
Captain Murder & The Devil's Bargain
The Signal-Man
January 22, 2022
Quite good. At first the longest story felt bit too much (too boring) but it got better, still probably weakest story out of all those stories. What more is to say, you will like them or not. Nothing scary, maybe bit spooky but good.
November 10, 2022
Can’t believe the Brontë’s were writing during the same time period… First go with Dickens and don’t think will ever pick up another thing written by him. Worst experience ever. Wish I was the type of person to DNF.
December 13, 2020
The book would be better if it was closed in the chapter before end.
March 18, 2016
While some of the stories didn't have the strongest end, I admire Dickens performance in creating milieu and surroundings. All details that we can see nowadays in ghost stories and movies have their roots in this kind of writings written way before there was even movie-industry. Furthermore, as I have seen some of the movies originated from Dickens writings, it was really enjoyable to see how strongly they are influenced by writings.
I also enjoyed this ghost-story style that isn't horror as we see nowadays.
These are beautiful ghost-stories that are written in a way you can really enjoy.
I also enjoyed this ghost-story style that isn't horror as we see nowadays.
These are beautiful ghost-stories that are written in a way you can really enjoy.
March 18, 2015
It was an okay reading, but I definitely expected more... ghostly story.
Charles Dickens is one of the classic authors I like to read, and his style is just mesmerizing, reading his flawless description is like actually being there, but I didn't feel like his goth stories were up to his standards. I know for a fact he can do better, and I didn't enjoy them as much as I thought.
Charles Dickens is one of the classic authors I like to read, and his style is just mesmerizing, reading his flawless description is like actually being there, but I didn't feel like his goth stories were up to his standards. I know for a fact he can do better, and I didn't enjoy them as much as I thought.
April 19, 2015
#NYR2015 #17
Collection of short stories by Dickens. Have read a few books by Dickens and want to read more but this didnt really do it for me other than the original short version of A Christmas Carol, The Signalman and The Goblins who stole a Sexton. the rest felt pretty dated which possibly explains them feeling a little pedestrian
Collection of short stories by Dickens. Have read a few books by Dickens and want to read more but this didnt really do it for me other than the original short version of A Christmas Carol, The Signalman and The Goblins who stole a Sexton. the rest felt pretty dated which possibly explains them feeling a little pedestrian
December 29, 2015
Haunting
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